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MUSD-MFSL-367

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Mobile Fidelity

Genre:

Rock

Format:

180 Gram Audiophile Virgin Vinyl LP - 2 LPs Sealed

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Grateful Dead Skull & Roses Vinyl Record | Vinyl LP Album

Numbered Limited Edition 180g 2LP Set

1971 Double Live Album Presents Legendary Bands Expansion Into Country Rock, Traditional Rock and Roll, and Roots Folk

Half-Speed Mastered from the Original Master Tapes: Ultra-Quiet Pressing Features Spacious, Transparent, Illuminating, and Organic Sound

Prototype Document of the Deads Second-Era Sound and Lineup: More Accessible, Concise, and Stripped-Down Performances

Includes Many Longtime Staples of the Bands Live Repertoire: Playing in the Band, The Other One, Me and My Uncle, Bertha, Wharf Rat, and More

Part of Mobile Fidelitys Amazing Grateful Dead Reissue Series: Live/Dead, From the Mars Hotel, Wake of the Flood, and In the Dark Also Available on 180g LP

The Grateful Dead took to the start of the 1970s as a different albeit equally thrilling and eminently broader-reaching band than the ensemble that revolutionized psychedelia in the late 1960s. Made evident in the back-to-back studio releases Workingmans Dead and American Beauty, the group increased its mastery of harmony-driven roots songs distinguished by catchy signatures, more concise arrangements, and impossibly organic textures. Captured live in spring 1971 and featuring not a single repeated song from Live/Dead, the expressive performances on Skull & Roses document this stylistic expansion in unsurpassed fashion. The double-LP constitutes the no-limits sound of an iconic band coming in to its own.

Half-speed mastered from the original master tapes with the utmost care, and part of the labels unprecedented Grateful Dead reissue series, Mobile Fidelitys numbered limited edition 180g 2LP version of Skull and Roses presents the downsized Dead lineups most memorable songs in previously unimaginable fidelity. From the moment Jerry Garcias guitar pick touches a string at the outset of the scampering Bertha, the improvements are palpable: Life-size images, airy vocals, subterranean bass lines, incredibly spacious separation, tube-amp warmth, faithful tones, and balanced dynamics lead a crystal clear path to the music and the Deads extraordinary collective spark.

Originally captured on a 16-track recorder, the songs brim with rarified levels of you-are-there realism and reach-out-and-touch immediacy. Notorious for its exacting sound demands, the Dead achieves the kind of instrumental and frequency-range transparency that many dedicated audiophiles spend their entire lives dreaming about. Skull and Roses is a kernel of sonic truth. Such is the pressings degree of detail and insight that listeners will be able to debate what gauge guitar strings the members are using as they savor every last breath, riff, and snare hit.

Thankfully, the bands perfectionist attitude toward sound doesnt literally transfer over to its music approach. Loose, lively, playful yet earthy, focused, and committed, the Dead crackles with boogie-based moxie, greasy soulfulness, and swaggering bravado, each note seemingly exploding like tiny pieces of magic that hover in the air and cast hypnotic spells. The groups embrace of leaner, tighter, more melodically incisive songs and the swaying rhythms that accompany the approach directly relate to two key lineup changes: the temporary departure of drummer Mickey Hart and permanent leave of keyboardist Tom Constanten. As a result, the Dead toured as a quintet, with Bill Kreutzmann the sole percussionist and Garcia, bassist Phil Lesh, guitarist/singer Bob Weir, and keyboardist/vocalist Ron Pigpen McKernan rounding out the barer-bone cast.

Not only do Garcia, Lesh, and Weir show tremendous growth as singers, the Dead as a whole further invest in folk, country, R&B, rock, and blues traditionsvia Garcias sweeter tones and Bakersfield picking, Weirs cowboy twang and increasingly confident counterpoints, Kreutzmanns hang-fire beats and scurrying grooves, Leshs weighty sway, McKernans foreshadowing spiritual timbres. Inspired covers of tunes by Merle Haggard (a frisky and defiant Mama Tried), Willie Dixon (the comfortably rumbling, boozy honky tonk Big Boss Man), Kris Kristofferson (the dusty, peaceable tale Me and Bobby McGee), Chuck Berry (a supercharged romping Johnny B. Goode), and Buddy Holly (Not Fade Away, segued into Goin Down the Road Feeling Bad) announce the Deads intent to make practically every style of contemporary American music their own, and in the processto paraphrase the great Bill Grahambe the only ones that did what they did.

A similar attitude informed the records genesis. The group originally lobbied to call the album Skullfuck before the record label, at an allegedly chaotic meeting at the infamous Hyatt Hotel, dissuaded the humorous ploy. While technically named Grateful Dead, the album is commonly known as Skull and Roses due to Alton Kelly and Stanley Mouses now-iconic cover art. Trivia buffs might know the latter is based on an illustration for an antique edition of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

The 1971 effort also has another huge claim to fame: It included the message DEAD FREAKS UNITE. Who are you? Where are you? How are you? Those simple lines, and the invitation to respond, created of the Deadhead subculture and biggest fan list in history, utterly pioneering the industry overnight.

Customer Reviews for Skull & Roses

SoundStageDirect Glossary

VINYL RECORDS

Vinyl records are able to capture the purest quality of recorded music in
true form. This is possible because the initial recording is captured on an
analog source (usually tape) for the ultimate in High Fidelity sound, it is
then pressed onto virgin vinyl. Analog recordings capture the bottom end
(or bass) while adding sweetness to the high end (or treble) better than any
digital recording ever could. Analog systems are still commonly used before
they are digitally transferred to CD. This means that the sound then is
altered in the transfer process when CD's are produced. The word fidelity
means accuracy and faithfulness. High Fidelity sound is faithful to the
original sound made by the artist, capturing maximum accuracy of what was
intended for the listener to hear. Vinyl records capture those sounds for
the ultimate High Fidelity listening experience!

180/200 GRAM Vinyl LP

These vinyl records are produced with 180 or 200 grams of high definition premium grade virgin vinyl. This is a higher quality audiophile pressing than the typical vinyl record of 100-120 grams. These limited edition LP's are manufactured with the hi-fi enthusiast in mind. A 180 or 200 gram LP is sometimes also referred to as an audiophile pressing, there is a higher bass response and an even warmer High Fidelity sound. 180 or 200 grams LP's are typically manufactured in limited amounts and are considered collectables, commanding a higher price.

VINYL REISSUES

Typically, a vinyl reissue is a repressing of an original LP, usually extracted from the recording's master-tapes. In some cases, reissues are remastered to lower surface noise and improve overall sonics. Reissues help preserve the music of an original recording, especially when original LPs become unavailable or can no longer be found. Reissues can be pressed on a variety of thickness from 150 gram to 200 gram and offer a great opportunity for records collectors to own many classic recordings.